Translated Content:
Gaza, October 28, 2023 (WAFA) – Alaa Mahdi, 54, from the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, described the devastation caused by the Israeli bombardment on Friday night as an “earthquake.”
The Israeli bombardment left widespread destruction of buildings and created huge craters in the completely destroyed streets of the Shati refugee camp, located on the coast of Gaza City.
“What happened in Shati was an earthquake, even worse than an earthquake,” Mahdi told AFP. “If it had been an earthquake, it would have been less devastating than what the naval, artillery, and air strikes caused. They all bombed innocent people… This is a massacre, it’s a human execution.”
Mahdi added, “Cutting off communications and internet before they entered was a premeditated act of sabotage so that no one could hear them. They caused total destruction and showed no mercy to people or trees. This is a complete execution.”
According to several testimonies gathered by AFP, hundreds of buildings and homes were completely destroyed, and thousands of housing units were damaged. In addition to the massive destruction of infrastructure and roads, the landscape of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip has been transformed by these unprecedented massacres.
Due to the accumulation of rubble everywhere, rescue and ambulance teams are unable to reach the hundreds of people trapped beneath it. The communications blackout has exacerbated this suffering.
The most intense bombardment by Israeli warplanes and artillery overnight targeted the area surrounding Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the "Indonesian Hospital," so named because it was built in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza with donations from Indonesia.
Human Rights Watch warned that the communications and internet blackout in the Gaza Strip, which is under heavy Israeli bombardment, could provide "cover for mass atrocities and contribute to impunity for human rights violations."
Jamal Abu Shaqfa, 50, a taxi driver in the Shati refugee camp, said he was transporting his family to Khan Younis and "we don't know where we'll go." "We left the camp because of fear and the indiscriminate bombing that doesn't distinguish between children, women, or the elderly... The situation is very bad."
On a street near the camp, dozens of residents search for survivors and victims among the rubble of the Al-Ghoul residential tower, which was destroyed by the bombing along with the surrounding homes.
Abdul Majid Abu Hasira, one of the young men searching for possible survivors, lies on his stomach on top of the rubble to hear better, calling out loudly, "Is anyone under there? We're here to rescue you!"
Kamal Abu Fatoum, 47, lives in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. He explains, "We were displaced to Rafah in the south last week. I arrived in Gaza City this morning to check on my house and found it damaged."
He continued, "When I went to check on my sister in the Shati refugee camp, I saw an earthquake bigger than the one in Turkey... Destruction, devastation, and massacres. People are under the rubble, some alive, some dead."
The Gaza Strip has been under a suffocating blockade since 2007, but the Israeli occupation government has tightened the siege on the Strip since the start of the aggression 22 days ago, including Electricity and water supplies were cut off, and the entry of basic necessities and fuel was prevented.
Israeli warplanes have continued their raids on the Gaza Strip since October 7th, resulting in the deaths of 7,650 Palestinians, including 3,195 children and 1,863 women, in addition to injuries to approximately 20,000, according to preliminary figures.
Medical sources reported that Israeli forces committed 53 massacres in the Gaza Strip between last night and dawn today, Saturday, in the most intense and severe bombardment since the start of the offensive 22 days ago.
The Gaza Strip has been engulfed in flames since the complete severing of communication and internet networks, causing a total paralysis of the healthcare system and the movement of ambulances and medical personnel.
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M.J.